WHEN BOB MET WOODY by Gary Golio

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: About capturing songs and stories

Guest Reviewer: Brittany Cryer

Featured Book: Golio, Gary, and Marc Burckhardt. 2011. When Bob met Woody: The story of the young Bob Dylan. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN#: 9780316112994.

Brittany writes: In this new 2011 release, When Bob Met Woody, poetry appears in the form of lyrical words in the context of this biographical picture book about the meeting between two song writers and poets. While there may not be much recognizable poetry, this book illustrates how to create poetry in the form of music. With its beautiful illustrations it will captivate students and inspire them to follow their dreams.

This book shows the story of young Bob Dylan (Bob Zimmerman) as a small kid growing up in Minnesota. He eventually goes to the New York City where he follows Woody Guthrie as his mentor.

When Bob Met Woody shows the hardships involved with being a kid, being Jewish, wanting to be a musician, and following your dreams. This is a great story to share with kids because these messages are what they can relate to. It is also a beneficial story to read because it is based on true life.

There isn't much poetry that is obvious, but there is some within the story including several lines of lyrics and quotes. In addition, the character Bob is inspired by the poet Dylan Thomas. Because of this, he changes his name to Bob Dylan.

With all the influences in his life (Elvis Presley, Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, Dylan Thomas) he was able to shape his.

Poem sample

Songs about real life,
Hard times, and hope.
Songs that moved people to
Speak out and stand up.
Songs about he struggle
For peace and justice.
Songs in a new voice,
For a new time.

Even the poetry brings messages about change that Bob Dylan experienced. This book as a whole shows struggles that appear in Bob Dylan’s music.

Connections
I would introduce this book before showing music from Bob Dylan. This would show the children background about musicians. Once they hear the lyrics they will be able to relate. This will teach them how to learn the lyrical meaning of songs. In doing so, they will be learning poetry.

Another way to introduce this poem is to show the difficulties that Bob Dylan experienced. Then, try to involve the students in figuring out their mentors and who inspires them. From that, they have creative influences that can help them with writing poetry, music, art, etc.

Tomorrow’s tagline: Getting the poetry out there

[National Poetry Month is nearly over— there is still time to get your copy of the e-book, PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, downloadable at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone for only 99 cents. Grab it now.]

Image credit: PoetryTagTime; Little Brown

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.